Ruiner Review Roundup

The reviews are in for Devolver Digital’s new cyberpunk action game Ruiner. Here’s what they thought of the brutal action shooter.

Eurogamer

“Ruiner hates you. I don’t mean that just in the sense that Ruiner is punishing, though it’s certainly that – the game’s “Normal” difficulty setting makes the average Call of Duty final stand look like a pillowfight in a nursery. I mean that Ruiner’s entire universe is radioactive with spite. It’s there in the lighting and palette of Rengkok South, the game’s late 21st century urban hub – a quagmire of oozing red mist, tar black, toxic orange and the occasional, lonely note of blue or pink, the final moments of Alien’s Nostromo blurring into the hellish racecourse of Neo Tokyo’s “Running Man”. It’s there in your character, a pipe-wielding cyborg parody of dysfunctional machismo who communicates using a pixel-display helmet – favourite phrases include “hello darkness”, “nowhere to hide” and the ever-poetic “kill you”. And it’s there, above all, in the shape of “Her” – the nameless geek girl in phat headcans and a Kaneda-brand capsule jacket, who frees you from another hacker’s control during the prologue.” [Read full review]

Gamespot 8/10

“There’s a certain flavour of brutality that some video games possess. An intoxicating river of violence that flows through the gameplay and drives a story through to a (hopefully) satisfying conclusion. It provokes a certain appeal that transforms a potentially generic experience into a bleak, brutal journey of blood, sweat and tears. This is where Ruiner lives and breathes.” [Read full review]

PC Gamer – 84/100

“Ruiner is gorgeous, a sensory feast inspired by the works of cyberpunk’s 1980s heyday, in which a silent, masked protagonist travels through the nightscapes and industrial jungles of a grit-tech 2091. Underneath, a thumping top-down action game delivers sword-sharp combat, the familiarity of its design offset by the constant urge to simply stand still and drink everything in.” [Read full review]

IGN – 6/10

“A funny thing happened after I beat Ruiner: I started having fun. My first playthrough was exhaustingly difficult. I don’t mind a challenge, but I also don’t want to feel like I’m banging my head against a wall for 10 hours, unsure of what I’m doing wrong. However, retreading the 14 levels of cyberpunk brutality as the fully powered-up version of my twin-stick killer finally let me enjoy the frantic, stylish combat.” [Read full review]

Favourite games include Heavy Rain, Grim Fandango and Borderlands. Gina loves a good narrative, with interesting quirky characters. She's currently playing Ori and The Blind Forest and just finished Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Firewatch. Follow Gina on the community!